Mother of the Year

In what has to be the all time highlight in my career as a mom, this morning I have managed to melt plastic all over my oven:

what I wasn't able to scoop out, soft, with a wooden spoon...

Someone in my community taught me this great secret she learned from our rebbetzin; if you can’t stand looking at the larger pots and pans that are dirty for all of Shabbat, hide them in the oven.

First of all, if you are lucky enough to have two dishwashers then you usually won’t have this problem. You can hide everything in there. We have one dishwasher, and it is dairy because we eat so much more dairy during the week.

Second, if you are going to use this little trick you have to either: make sure to wash your dirty dishes motzei Shabbat instead of relaxing, hanging out, or just being tired; or at least have to have the presence of mind to NOT TURN IT ON UNTIL YOU HAVE TAKEN THINGS BACK OUT.

Come to think of it, one probably should have the sechel (wisdom) not to put a plastic cutting board in the oven to store, ever, no matter how messy the kitchen is, or how much it bothers you.

I would love to tell you that this is the very first time I have preheated an oven and then realized I had left things in there. I wish it were the second time, or even the third. This is the first time I have ever been stupid enough to put a plastic object in there, never mind forget about it completely.

I think the holy and wise rebbetzin who uses this trick to hide her pots and pans is much older than me, gets a full night sleep, and has older children who help her DO the dishes motzei Shabbat instead of hiding them and leaving them there.

Now my house smells like melted, toxic plastic. I have no idea how I can safely burn the goo off without causing my home to become a toxic hazard too dangerous for my own children. I have no doubt it is going to be one of those lessons I have learned the hard way, with a lot of time, money and energy wasted.

Truly, mother of the year. : (

PS – if I figure out how to safely get rid of it all, I will write an update.

I had done that on several occasions, so now I just tolerate dirty dishes. I have pretty high level of tolerance for them, I must admit. One question though – how does melting your cutting board make you a “mother of the year”?

The “mother of the year” comment was very sarcastic; I truly felt like a complete idiot. Getting plastic all over the oven and having toxic fumes around my children was not my best moment as a parent…..